Student Number: 0823844

Professional Development

Module Code: DR 3014

Website 1

Production: Body, Mind and Soul

Characters: Six Female Characters

Body Mind Soul

The ‘Body, Mind and Soul’ production was performed in 2009 at Brunel

University by second year students. The company based their experimental

performance on ‘Body, Mind and Soul and collaborated the production with seven

women characters who represent the same person. The “Body” often is used in

connection with appearance, health issues and death. The body is the physical body of

an individual. The “Mind” is the aspect of intellect and consciousness experienced as

combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, will, and imagination,

including all unconscious cognitive processes.

The “Soul” is a certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions, is

the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. The seven actors for

‘Body, Mind and Soul production devised their piece by focusing on the three stages

of the human circle in modern performing arts. The attention was mainly aimed at

Constantine Stanislavski who has a naturalistic approach; Stanislavsky’s works

centred on creating the inner life of the role and stimulate the creative state of mind.
 Student Number: 0823844

Professional Development

Module Code: DR 3014

Website 1

The production was very disturbing and interacted with the audience to make them

feel the emotions and discomfort the actors felt on stage. Body, mind and soul began

its expedition by focusing on how certain situations and fundamentals can affect our

everyday life. The performance was set out as a classroom. The actors on stage

represented the teacher with the authority and educational rights whilst the audience

became the students within the spectatorship, this created a sense of uneasiness and

tension.

The dialogues and the physical movements incorporated within the piece

helped the audience express their feelings and relate any situations they might be

going through in their personal state and letting it speak through the performance. The

actors on stage looked exactly the same, wearing a white gown, tide back hair, hot red

lipstick and dark eyes. The costume reflected all the women characters on stage to be

represented as one and creating the dominant character that controls the situations,

complications and strength of mind.

The storyline was all about how the teachers meaning the actors manipulating

the students who are the audience which takes over their mind, body and soul

following the control of the actors on stage through movement, speech and red

ribbons which were used to portray the human circle of life. The red ribbon was one

of the core objects which was passed around the stage and always was related back to

through each scene. The production portrayed a figure which was placed above the

stage of a human form to represent the concept that we are all one even if we don’t

speak the same language.

 Student Number: 0823844

Professional Development

Module Code: DR 3014

Website 1

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside

English and Dutch so the production in-cooperated the German language to represent

physicality through speech. The language used within the piece was solely English

beside one character whose speech was all in German, from dialogue as well as

monologues. This character represented how even speech can’t help you

communicate with a stranger but more characterizations of the body and facial

expressions would lead the audience to understand the concept the character tried to

put across to the spectators.

“Ich will das nicht, bitte, warum machen sie das… bitte, Ich will das nicht….”

(Shabla 2009: Mind, Body and Soul)

The props were really simple and straight forward, there was 4 step stages in

each corner, three throw down chairs, plain background and over all ribbons placed

which were followed back to especially through the physical dance piece. The

technical crew focused on the actors lighting from blue, yellow, red and green

portraying the emotions throughout the performance, this also represented part of the

seasons throughout the year from autumn, winter and summer. The production took

two months and five days to prepare for ‘Body, Mind and Soul performed in the

drama department at Brunel University in Gaskell, theatre centre 036, 2:00-2:30pm.